world peace through better cola
I was reading the New Yorker article on the green card program, which reminded me of the absurd ads for the green card lottery (or some application service thereof) that I used to see on Turkish MTV, featuring--no kidding--two willowy blondes in stars'n'stripes bikinis climbing out of a pool and frolicking on a beach, above the "apply now!" hotline: America's goods on offer.
And that reminded me of the best Turkish TV ad ever, and I set about googling, and found that it exists on the internets! It's made my day, and it will make yours, too. The ad's for Cola Turka, a locally-produced ripoff of Coke (kind of a Turkish version of Mecca Cola and Qibla Cola, but tastes better than either of those. Speaking of which, though, I have a friend who wrote an MA thesis--at Harvard no less--on Islamic colas. Isn't that a great topic?) Cola Turka is produced by the people at Ülker, the lovely food conglomerate that also brings you Biskrem cookies, sesame-seed stick crackers, and Ülker pistachio chocolate, and gives me late-night drunken junkfood cravings in faraway countries.
Ülker also makes pretty damn good commercials, and its 2004 Cola Turka spot "Yurtta Sulh, Cihanda Sulh" is the best. Go watch it (they have both quicktime & wmp versions). The phrase "yurtta sulh, cihanda sulh" is an Atatürk quote, a sort of tagline for his neutral foreign policy. It means "Peace in (our) land, peace in the world" (in pre-language reform Turkish, that is; today you'd say "yurtta barış, dünyada barış" instead). This is probably the only cola commercial set in a desert combat zone.
Of course, Coca-Cola runs some cool Turkish ads, too, especially during Ramadan. But we're boycotting them on account of union-busting, polluting, and screwing over local communities--in Kerala and in Turkey and in Columbia--and trying to greenwash it in Oxford.
And that reminded me of the best Turkish TV ad ever, and I set about googling, and found that it exists on the internets! It's made my day, and it will make yours, too. The ad's for Cola Turka, a locally-produced ripoff of Coke (kind of a Turkish version of Mecca Cola and Qibla Cola, but tastes better than either of those. Speaking of which, though, I have a friend who wrote an MA thesis--at Harvard no less--on Islamic colas. Isn't that a great topic?) Cola Turka is produced by the people at Ülker, the lovely food conglomerate that also brings you Biskrem cookies, sesame-seed stick crackers, and Ülker pistachio chocolate, and gives me late-night drunken junkfood cravings in faraway countries.
Ülker also makes pretty damn good commercials, and its 2004 Cola Turka spot "Yurtta Sulh, Cihanda Sulh" is the best. Go watch it (they have both quicktime & wmp versions). The phrase "yurtta sulh, cihanda sulh" is an Atatürk quote, a sort of tagline for his neutral foreign policy. It means "Peace in (our) land, peace in the world" (in pre-language reform Turkish, that is; today you'd say "yurtta barış, dünyada barış" instead). This is probably the only cola commercial set in a desert combat zone.
Of course, Coca-Cola runs some cool Turkish ads, too, especially during Ramadan. But we're boycotting them on account of union-busting, polluting, and screwing over local communities--in Kerala and in Turkey and in Columbia--and trying to greenwash it in Oxford.
posted by kitabet at 1:14 AM
2 Comments:
And we all know who makes his money off of Ülker, don't we?
Well yeah, but religious conservatism isn't enough to make me consider them boycott-worthy. I haven't heard anything about unfair labour practices or serious corporate misdeeds.
(the owner of the Ulker group, Sabzi Ulker, is a prominent supporter of various Islamic causes, though not of a radical sort as far as I know. He's got ties to the AK party leadership and to some Islamic banking efforts in Turkey.
Though this reminds me of a friend's father who apparently refuses to ride Has buses, even though he lives in Hatay, because of their Saudi ties.
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